Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 290404, member: 5833&quot;]For me it&#039;s another case of mixed signals.&nbsp; I do see points that seem consistent with what in cars used to be called a &#039;unitized body&#039;, but too many others on the other side of the scale.&nbsp; If I had to finger just one, I would say the rounded shoulders of the background slab: common with glass; never seen in stone.&nbsp; The matte look of the figure against the glossy sheen of the ground also jars me.</p><p><br /></p><p>The eBay brooch is like &#039;Omar&#039; in having the pin mounted to run vertically.&nbsp; Cameos in this shell do not turn up often.&nbsp; When they do, they all seem to be from this same time period.&nbsp; They are not always recognized as shell.&nbsp; The bearded man I tacked on to previous message is from a new catalog of a private European collection, where it is described as stone.&nbsp; I don&#039;t know why they seem to have had such a limited time of production, but suspect that they were one of the ways cameo cutters tried to keep up with growing popular demand by using more easily worked shell that could pass as stone when set.&nbsp; Another old trick was to cut using only the white layer, then either coating the back with something black, such as pitch, or mounting the cameo on slate.&nbsp; These are a couple of examples of the latter:&nbsp; [ATTACH]93937[/ATTACH] [ATTACH]93938[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in